In a world saturated with buzzwords and “by-the-book” leadership, being at the helm can feel like an eternal rat race. But what if leadership wasn't just about chasing targets but chasing bliss too? Dive into the edgy, uncharted waters of leadership where bliss isn't just a destination; it's the journey. Some of these are only for the brave.

Our world is busy with notifications & breaking news. The role of a leader has never been more challenging—or more crucial. Today, more than ever, we need leaders who are not just driven by profit or prestige, but by purpose & empathy. Teams need Leaders who can remain calm, collected & focused while helping others do the same. Be human, manage your emotions and provide support while the emotions are running high. 

In the realm of business, decisions often need to be made swiftly and effectively. While data and analytical tools provide valuable insights, there's another tool that leaders should not overlook - intuition. Although it may sound unconventional, integrating intuition with conventional decision-making processes can lead to surprisingly effective outcomes. Before you dismiss the thought, consider Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson have all been quoted as using their “gut” to help make important decisions. 

Whether you are an emerging Leader or well versed in Executive Leadership, you are on a journey that offers deep satisfaction & big impact while also marked with challenges, uncertainties, and a few “hiccups” along the way. This journey can be even more arduous due to societal biases and imbalances that persist in many parts of the world regarding women, minorities and LGBTQIA+ communities. 

Whether you are an emerging Leader or well versed in Executive Leadership, you are on a journey that offers deep satisfaction & big impact while also marked with challenges, uncertainties, and a few “hiccups” along the way. This journey can be even more arduous due to societal biases and imbalances that persist in many parts of the world regarding women, minorities and LGBTQIA+ communities. 

Whether or not we like to admit it, unconscious bias often guides our decisions. We are inherently biased creatures. However, by being aware of the way bias influences our behavior and beliefs, we can reduce it.

Back in the day, we compared organizations to machines, nowadays they are viewed as living organisms. Just like any organism, they must adapt to an environment that changes constantly. Organizations have to be steady, yet flexible. In other words, agile. Business agility is not just about increasing speed and improving customer experience, but also about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Being a leader is a demanding role. It is probably one of the most challenging and rewarding roles one can have. As a leader, you’re in charge of high-stake decisions every day. You are the one who has to deliver the bad news, say yes or say no. Often, what accompanies these tasks is an emotional rollercoaster. That’s normal. Leaders are humans first.

Embrace chaos or cultivate order? This is the question that separates a traditional Leaders from an agile one. Understandably, many Leaders default to tradition. It feels orderly, it’s predictable, and it's comfortable. Traditional waterfall also had constant budget overruns, late delivery, took FOREVER, and after months of hard work resulted in something the customer actually didn’t want. Yep, predictable, orderly and costly. 

Authentic leadership, an approach characterized by self-awareness, integrity, and transparency, is a powerful leadership style especially for leaders. Embracing authenticity can pave the way to impactful leadership. This article shares simple strategies for leaders to cultivate authentic leadership in a place where being yourself can feel uncomfortable.

We're living in a whirlwind era where the only constant is... you guessed it, change! But here's the kicker: while the business landscape shifts like quicksand beneath our feet, there's one thing that remains rock solid – the need for psychological safety.

Lynn Bonner speaks with Angelique Rewers of BoldHaus about what it takes to be undeniable and how to help others do the same. Enjoy this interview that outlines how you can help and how to join this brand new growing community of Agilists, Leaders, and women who are leading the way towards better communities, more representation at the top or by building their own tables. 

Join The Undeniable Collective!  Enjoy and take action. 

Lynn Bonner talks to us all the way from Atlanta, in the United States – she is the Vice President of Agile and Business Transformation at the US Bank – let’s just appreciate that for a moment – a woman, a women of colour and a woman of colour in tech. Lynn is also the Founder of the Action Leadership Lab – where she coaches and mentors people to hold their space and transform themselves. Lynn’s energy is infectious and she leads from the front in everything she does. Lynn packs in heaps of practical strategies for women of colour and allies – I promise you, you will feel the need to grab a pen and paper. Listen to her call to action at the end and what it means – she calls it, “Each one, help one” - it captures the legacy Lynn is building and leaving behind. Please enjoy trailblazer, Lynn Bonner.

Lynn Bonner’s tenure at Big 4 consulting firms, as a VP at U.S. Bank, and as a Founder is a trifecta of scaling success stories. She knows it takes energy, leadership, and action to get things done. As the CEO of her firm, Action Leadership Lab, she applies agile and digital transformation principles from her corporate experience to scale her clients’ companies. In this episode, Lynn shares how to build and scale a sustainable business in short, incremental steps.

Atlanta-based Lynn Bonner, Enterprise Agile Transformation Lead of U.S. Bank/Elavon, speaks with Kristy Duncan on the importance of diversity to women in payments in this episode of Pause for Payments, "Pipeline, Not PipeDream: How a Diverse Pipeline Impacts your Agile or Digital Transformation."

Atlanta-based Lynn Bonner, Enterprise Agile Transformation Lead of U.S. Bank/Elavon, speaks with Kristy Duncan on the importance of diversity to women in payments in this episode of Pause for Payments, "Pipeline, Not PipeDream: How a Diverse Pipeline Impacts your Agile or Digital Transformation."

What is Agile? But most important, we first have to know what Agile is not. People often get confused about the term and the implementation of it in the organizations, by just not really understanding it in it’s real purpose. So let's clarify this first.

Delegating effectively is not a walk in the park. It’s a meticulous process that requires extensive support from both sides. Without delegating, companies would NOT exist. A company exists because the person who initiated the business idea did not decide to do everything by themselves even if it was possible. 

Organizations exist to solve problems. That’s undisputable. How are they able to do that? By equipping workers with necessary skills, equipment and materials to get the job done. This forms a complex system that works together in harmony. 

Why coaching is better than Managing in a business/organization. At its best, coaching is about partnering rather than about one person being "the expert" and lecturing the other. It’s about guidance, not control. It’s about learning, not knowing. 

“True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” – Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

Be confident. It goes without saying that confidence goes a long way
Become a better listener. We all hate people who talk nonstop and never listen. 

So when we talk about our coaching approach, there's a few ways to do this. The first of which is all around the cheerleader, it's all about that positive interview. It's all about how do I give you as much good blacks so that you, as a business owner are coming up with their plans. You as a business owner are coming up with the action steps to, for cheerleading is a formal coaching, by the way it exists. 

Well, let's talk about what a road trip looks and feels like. So when we in our community say road trip, pink process optimization, what the heck does that mean? That means I need to understand the full slough. For those of you who've been in consulting, you already know there's a couple of tricks I'm going to give here, but if you haven't welcome, when you're talking about helping a team, understand how to optimize a process, how to make it better, how to make it faster.

Making a team better and turning them into a “dream team” is a difficult task to take upon yourself but not impossible.

Organizations and businesses exist to solve problems. These solutions are created and developed by your employees. Employees do not exist in a vacuum and they certainly do not make big EPIC things happen as individuals. Hello Teams! To guarantee the success of the organization or business, team members need to co-exist to achieve sustainable performance & productivity. I said sustainable not maximum. What happens when you drive your car at maximum speed for long periods of time? It catches on fire! 

Get real, and get ahead - 5 ways to become more authentic

The world is filled with 10 billion people. Out of those billions, there is only one you. There are a large number of limitations when you try to stay “normal” or hide in the shadows of others. Stepping up and being authentically you ensures your full potential is untethered. Show up and show out!

What comes to mind when you hear the word coaching? TEAMS. Functional, organized people getting a major goal accomplished. And that’s why the head of a sports team is called a coach and not a manager.

 A recent study done by The New Yorker squashed the ever so famous quote by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “You’re entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.”

Did you know that, on average, we’ll spend  60% of our lives working? That’s 90,000 hours of our lives with our colleagues. No on  wants to spend 8+ hours every day in a stressful environment with unfriendly coworkers.Yes, virtual team members count. Personalities shine on the phone and zoom calls just like they do in person.. Trust me... 

Let’s face it, some days we are full of energy and get so much done that we feel like can take over the world. On other days we function on 100% auto-pilot. This applies as an individual and in teams. Regardless of whether you are an individual contributor or a leader, understanding how energy flows matters. In order to avoid the trap of “I can’t get more done” try these tips for covering more ground in a focused time period.

The #1 question during an agile transformation is what do Managers do? Here is the short answer. No worries! We will elaborate more in our upcoming articles.

Whether you are an “internal CEO” leading teams or an entrepreneurial business mogul making moves on your own, you need leadership and coaching skills to survive & thrive. You need a team even if it just a team of 1.

Simple is genius. Avoid the trap of confusion, weird new terms and over-complicated systems. People need people. We need to connect, align, and find a purpose in what we are doing.